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There doesn't seem to be much information out there on kitten farms, but if you dig a little deeper kitten farms are very much in abundance.

What is a kitten farm?

Basically, a kitten farm is where people breed their cats for the sole purpose of getting money for the kittens. They don't care about the welfare of the cat or its kittens which leads to problems with the kittens themselves. I personally bought kittens from a kitten farm without realising what it was.

Why are kitten farms bad?

Kitten farms are bad because of the way the kittens have been raised, here are a number of factors to consider.

Kitten farms usually keep their kittens in a box, the kittens aren't allowed out. As you can imagine a young kitten will have a lot of energy and will want to run around as much as possible. Keeping them in a box is not good for their development.

Kitten farms don't usually take the time and care to wean the kittens properly. They have probably just had restricted access to the mother and been given solid food to eat. Again, this is not healthy for the kitten, proper gradual weaning should take place in order to have a healthy kitten.

The kittens having been kept in a box are unlikely to have been litter trained properly, so you will have to litter train your kitten from scratch.

Kitten farm owners will usually advertise their kittens as having been treated for fleas and worms, as not many people usually choose a kitten that hasn't been treated. Having said that, usually they use the cheapest treatment they can, which is usually from a normal shop and isn't very effective at all. The best treatment is a little more expensive and has to be purchased from a vets practice.

Sometimes kitten farms will allow kittens away from their mothers quite early on, but you should never get a kitten younger than 8 weeks old, it is just far too young for the kitten to be away from its mother.

What makes a good seller?

A good seller does take into consideration the welfare of the kittens. I raised 3 litters of kittens and I will explain what I did to differentiate from kitten farms.

Firstly, the kittens were in a box, however, one side was lowered so mother could get in and out whenever she wanted, the kittens once old enough could also get in and out whenever they wanted. When the kittens were a week old, every day for about 10-15 minutes I would get them out of their box just to encourage them to start walking about a bit. Once they were old enough to get out of the box by themselves, they could run around as they pleased as if they were part of the family.

The kittens were weaned properly, firstly with kitten milk and then onto solid food, but meat loaf type food and then onto more solid food. They were also fully litter trained and during my time, only had 1 accident.

Kittens should only be allowed from their mother's after 8 weeks, and by this time should have been treated twice for fleas and worms.

As another touch, I always sent a blanket with each kitten so that they took something with them that had a familiar smell to it.

If any of the kittens were ill, they were taken to the vet and were not allowed to be adopted until they were well enough.

How to Avoid Kitten Farms

The best way to avoid kitten farms is to do a little research, if you see an ad for a kitten you like then ask questions. Ask to visit the kittens. If the seller isn't keen on this then there must be a reason.

Ask if they are to be treated for fleas and worms and ask what medication they will be using.

Common sense is the best way to figure this out, but the best way is to visit the kittens and if they look like they have just been kept in a box then I would steer well clear, there are better sellers out there that do want to raise good healthy kittens.

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